


Between Midnight and Dawn

by aderyn



Series: Natural Facts [30]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: crossroads & meetings, double 221B
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-16
Updated: 2012-05-16
Packaged: 2017-11-05 11:17:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/405802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aderyn/pseuds/aderyn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Greg Lestrade actually met Sherlock Holmes at a crossroads of sorts.  Very nearly at midnight.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Between Midnight and Dawn

_“Drinking the first of many coffees, always in a go- cup, making small talk with the delivery guys who dribbled in, a kinship there because all of them had grown fond of that time between night and dawn.”--George Pelecanos_

 

Greg Lestrade actually met Sherlock Holmes at a crossroads of sorts.  Very nearly at midnight. It's unbelievable, but nearly everything about Sherlock is.  The first time Lestrade saw him he was standing in the road mid-King’s Cross arguing with the driver of a 1987 Fiat Uno(black, well-maintained) in what Lestrade thought sounded like passable Italian.

Lestrade’s first thought on spotting the street theatre was,"This bloke is fucking high, and possibly also one of the undead."  So he’d strolled over, holding up traffic one-handed with the casual authority of the perpetually on-duty.

“What's happened here?”

The (very white male, probably high, possibly dead, maybe mid-twenties, officious dark overcoat) indicates the driver of the Fiat and says,

“Oh, brilliant, the Met. Better arrest this man before he runs.”

While Lestrade’s mouth is hanging open, the driver runs.

Lestrade runs after him. He still doesn't know why.  (Instinct? Or was it the ridiculously authoritative garment?) But he runs after the driver while horns blare and the Fiat sits open-doored in the thoroughfare and the coat looks on, _laughing_ (because he's fucking high and Lestrade will probably have to arrest him too. But, of course, he doesn't.)

The driver of the Fiat (unremarkable) is a paedophile wanted for questioning in six open child murders. He’s on Interpol’s wanted list.  Lestrade’s dry spell is suddenly, miraculously, broken.

*******

The criminological savant in the coat is definitely high, but he has a pulse.

 “Sherlock Holmes,” he says later, in an overheated, nameless pub where they don’t much care what you do as long as the furniture is still intact after.

“Well, Mr. Holmes,” says Lestrade.

“You have questions,” Sherlock says.

“Do you work private then?” Lestrade asks.  He doesn’t relish contractors (consultants, he’ll think later), but occasionally they get the job done.

“My respect for private detectives is surpassed only by my deep and abiding regard for you lot,” Sherlock says, lighting a cigarette. He offers one to Lestrade, though he’s already guessed that Lestrade is trying to quit.

“Are you always this offensive?” Lestrade says, accepting a light.

“Nearly always.”

Lestrade’s already noticed the pupils, but now he notices the skin at the edge of a pushed-up sleeve. Sherlock notices him noticing and doesn’t even flinch when Lestrade takes his forearm and gives it the once-over.

“You know,” Lestrade says.

Sherlock is looking at him with what appears to be a combination of spectacular arrogance and trembling hope.

“It might be best,” Lestrade says, “if you didn’t work alone.” He has no idea why he says it, of all the things he could say.

Sherlock’s eyes are all fading city starlight.

Over the Afghan desert, dawn has already broken.  
  


**Author's Note:**

> [Between Midnight and Dawn (1950)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042242/)
> 
> "Listen to me brother when you’re not strong /I can carry that load on/ Listen to my words and keep’em in mind/ Don’t let that Devil creep up behind...I know it won’t be long ‘til the morning... but now I’m caught between midnight and the dawn.”--The Steep Canyon Rangers
> 
>  [Caught Between Midnight and the Dawn by the Steep Canyon Rangers](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXKmRWhz2ec&feature=related)


End file.
